The Apple Orchard
The approach of fall always brings to me memories of the two grand old orchards which were here when Our children were growing up. They had been planted for some time and were at their best when we came here to live. My father had planted and tended them on this small homestead. There were seventeen varieties, early and late. At first we were unfamiliar with them, but as they matured we followed the record books on them which my father had left and it was an adventure in itself for the children to recognize the different varieties. There were two orchards each having one hundred trees; now after the lapse of years, most of the trees are gone as well as all of the children who helped to gather in their fruit. Scarcely a dozen trees are left there being too many dry years.
It is a pleasure to think back over the years and recall those handsome globes of juicy fruit. The strawberry crab’s began the season in harvest time. They are primarily a children’s apple, full of flavor and color, easy for the youngest toddler to hold and eat. These were quickly followed by the Whitney Crab, good to eat and to pickle. There were several varieties of the Dutchess apple for pies and baking. When school started in fall, the Wealthy came into its own and small sacks of them were carried along with the lunch pails to be shared and traded for some different delicacy. They were full of juice and as good as a drink on a hot day. One apple which surprised me was a hard green apple seemingly of little good. One morning after a light frost I was astonished to see each tree a mass of golden apples, delicious to eat – Grimes Golden Globe. For some reason this tree never bore again those magical golden apples.
In early fall the Patten Greenings replaced the Dutchess for pies and baking, and a little later on the rosy-cheeked Wulf Rivers obligingly did the same. There were the Siberian crabs for a very red jelly, and Winesaps and Sheep’s nose for winter eating. The best keepers were the Malindas and the Northwest Greenings left on the trees as long as possible.
As cider mills properly belong in all orchards, there was one in ours, and many hands made light work of grinding out the sweet delicious juice. Cider apple butter cannot be surpassed as a spread for bread, and we made quantities of it. As the years pass and a different generation enters the stage of life, settings and customs change too, and there are not as many apple orchards in our part of the country as there used to be. But the memories of those old orchards still linger on and the flavor of apples brings those yesterdays back again.
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